Adding animation to your slides is an important step in finalizing a presentation. You can create several types of animation in Keynote. Two of the most common are builds and transitions. This chapter will give you step-by-step instructions to animate your slides and give sizzle to your presentations.

Adding animation to your slides is an important step in finalizing a presentation. You can create several types of animation in Keynote. Two of the most common are builds and transitions.

In Keynote, a build allows you to animate the appearance of text or slide elements. You can create dynamic builds that control
the order in which information is revealed on a slide. This ordering of information can help your audience, as it directs
them where to focus their attention. Keynote harnesses the power of your computer’s graphics card to create television-quality
animations.

Transitions between slides can also aid your audience. Transitions are meant to signify a change in topic for your audience.
Keynote offers several options to choose from, but it is considered good design to limit yourself to just a few in a presentation.
Learning how (and when) to add transitions can really enliven your presentation.

Creating Builds to Reveal Text

You can set up your Keynote presentation so that lines of text are revealed to the audience when you click. When revealing text in Keynote, you have several options. There are effects that animate the entire text block as well as those
that break up the text by word or character before animating. All text animation is controlled from within the Inspector.

Continue with your project from the last lesson or open the file 03Presentation1_Stage1.key from the DVD-ROM.

As you change each option, you’ll see the thumbnail animation in the inspector update to reflect the new animation.

Click the block of bulleted text to select it.

In the Build Inspector, click Build In. Then choose the following options:

Effect: Word Effects > Dissolve

Direction: Forward

Delivery: All at Once

Duration: 2.00 s

Note that the order now changes to 2.

As you change each option, the thumbnail animation in the inspector updates again.

Select the red text block at the bottom of the page by clicking it.

In the Build Inspector, click Build In. Then choose the following options:

Effect: 3D Effects > Flip

Direction: Top to Bottom

Delivery: All at Once

Duration: 1.00 s

Apply the same settings to slides 4, 5, 6, and 7. Alternately, you can skip ahead and open the file 03Presentation1_Stage2.key from the DVD-ROM.

Press Command-S to save your work.

You have now animated the text on the majority of your slides. This will help control the flow of information (by preventing
the audience from reading ahead). It also adds visual “pop” to reinforce your points.